{"id":162,"date":"2013-05-06T08:05:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T08:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=162"},"modified":"2013-06-26T20:26:30","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T20:26:30","slug":"neil-mother-5-aug-1917","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=162","title":{"rendered":"Neil – Mother: 5 Aug 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somewhere else
\nSunday 5th Aug
\nDear Mother,
\nWe shall reach our destination in about a fortnight or less so we are just getting into the region now where there are mines growing on every other waveand torpedoes sliding sliding along every other hollow. \u00a0This is my third letter. \u00a0Our second port of call was much more interesting than our first. \u00a0It is the biggest town I’ve seen but when I come to think of it there does not seem to be anything interesting enough to be worth putting in a letter – except that mandarins were ridiculously cheap there and I ate more than was good for me with the easily guessed results. \u00a0I did not write from our third port of call because a letter from there would have taken longer to reach you than one posted like this at our destination. \u00a0We were not allowed any leave from our third port, because, Rumours Agency \u00a0says, the girls wear nothing there but a hairpin. \u00a0The officers got ashore alright but thats different. \u00a0The sun is just due overhead at noon there this time of the year and so we just lay out in the harbour with the tar in the seams melting looking at the shady trees on the shore and wishing we had commissionxxx. \u00a0We are now practically through the tropics. \u00a0The church parade today was very serious. \u00a0Nobody seems inclined to take any risks with the temperature of the next world after what they have just experienced in this. \u00a0Even without a hairpin on it was insupportable . \u00a0And they (the knowing ones who seem somehow to have done everything before) say that we had rather a cold trip. \u00a0If it is a hot trip coming back you will see only half of my present 14 st 6 again – the other half will be washed off the deck by the ships hose and committed to the deep. \u00a0The time has slipped away fairly quickly since leaving our second port. \u00a0I have been playing chess practically every afternoon and evening with the commander of the boat – I mean the Naval Commander not the Military one. \u00a0We are very even and he is as keen on chess as I am. \u00a0We ended up 46-45 in my favour. \u00a0I shall get his signature on the magazine I send you home with this. \u00a0You’ll probably recollect his name. \u00a0He is of South Pole fame. (Added in pencil)\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Did not get is sig. Forgot. It was Lt. Comm. Evans. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have received no letter from you yet of course. \u00a0I suppose there will be quite a budget waiting for me at our destination, having taken a shorter route. \u00a0They don’t give you much chance of getting drowned on this trip. \u00a0A man without his lifebelt on on board here now, would create a far greater sensation than a man without his trousers on in Queen St. \u00a0The ship is in complete darkness at night and smoking is cut out after dusk. \u00a0You stroll along the deck to get a bit of tasteless air before turning and something suddenly hits you a sickening smack in the mouth and loosens three fillings and then you remember that they’ve just installed a smoke screen apparatus where you used to be able to walk without fear of being personally torpedoed. \u00a0You say a few things that you had only a nodding acquaintance with before joining the army and then you realise that after all the authorities mean well and you let them off further cursing.<\/p>\n

Trots finger had an argument with a porthole screen, but I expect he will give you all the gruesome details himself. \u00a0It was nothing very serious considering we had been watching what 12 inch naval shells could do the day before and it got him out of quite a lot of work.<\/p>\n

We have had an epidemic of measles on board, but so far it has passed me by. \u00a0Two men have died. \u00a0I assisted at the burial at sea of each. \u00a0It is not a very pleasant experience<\/p>\n

Monday 6th
\nI am getting a bit sick of all this business and wouldn’t refuse a return ticket if they offered me one. \u00a0The bread is very sour – not what you would call sour but real Sour – and it has given me a touch of indigestion. \u00a0One of my teeth is aching & I have a bit of a stone bruise or rather deck bruise on my heel. \u00a0There are quite a lot of other little things like that to add to the cheerfulness of the voyage.<\/p>\n

Sunday 19\/8\/17
\nIn Sling. – Cant write what I think of it – they wont allow explosive matter to go through the post. \u00a0Ther’s not an occupant of Sling who \u00a0 (the rest of this letter is missing)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n